The 6th meeting of the Armenia-EU Partnership Council was held in Brussels on Tuesday. The priorities of this partnership were discussed and approved.

Armenia's partnership with various countries and organizations is its internal affair. From this position, Baku approaches all countries on this issue. But only to the extent that it does not concern us. Unfortunately, the priorities of the EU-Armenia partnership in the field of foreign and security policy affect the interests of Azerbaijan in a number of ways. And no matter how well the peace process is going, you can't turn a blind eye to it.

It is commendable that the European Union is committed to continuing efforts to "ensure a long-term and dignified peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan." But there will be no decent and long-term peace if European structures do not understand that there are borders beyond which Azerbaijan will not allow anyone to enter, and by making promises to Yerevan, the European Union is actually promising something it cannot fulfill. Brussels is encouraging the Armenian side, and it will think that by signing some kind of document, it will be able to count on active EU intervention in issues where Yerevan lacks its own resources.

For example, according to the priorities announced by the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the European Union has pledged to promote "the full, immediate and effective implementation of the decisions of the International Court of Justice." The publication does not specify what it is about. But the same point is widely represented in the same priorities adopted at the 5th meeting in February last year. At that time, the Foreign Ministry reported that "the parties stressed the need for full, immediate and effective implementation of all decisions of the International Court of Justice within the framework of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Armenia v. Azerbaijan)." The shortening of the wording does not give much, because it is clear that we are talking about claims (which is not surprising) Armenia's claims against Azerbaijan and those satisfied by international judicial authorities against our country. The EU promises Yerevan assistance in ensuring compliance with the requirements contained in the court decisions.

This is not the first time such formulations have been heard in the statements of the EU-Armenia format. The European Union has always assumed too much, and Baku has more than once had to be besieged by its zeal to demonstrate extreme affection for our neighbor. During the years of the Armenian occupation, this had a negative impact on the EU's relations with Baku. Now that Azerbaijan has solved the problem of its territorial integrity, the excess of European feelings towards Yerevan and the double standards of European structures no longer threaten Azerbaijan's interests. However, EU officials, who seek to eliminate Moscow's influence on Yerevan at any cost, may spoil the positive trends that have emerged in relations between regional states with their excessive zeal.

The EU's promise to facilitate the immediate and continued implementation of the resolutions of international courts against Azerbaijan, adopted on the basis of Armenia's claims, became especially unacceptable after the initialing of the text of the peace treaty by the two countries. That is, after August 8, 2025. Apparently, the Armenian Foreign Ministry is aware of this, which is why this item on the Armenian-European agenda was left without details this time. But it did not save the situation.

The fact is that Article XV of the initialed text of the peace agreement contains the obligation of the parties to withdraw, terminate or otherwise settle all lawsuits, complaints, protests, objections, proceedings and disputes between them in all legal instances, and will not initiate new ones.

This is a very important commitment made by Nikol Pashinyan. For this, he was fiercely criticized by the revanchists, who hoped to resolve all issues at the expense of international courts loyal to the Armenians. If Pashinyan is really ready to withdraw the lawsuits, why oblige the European Union to help secure them? The "provision" obviously involves pressure on Baku, as the Azerbaijani side does not accept the decisions of these authorities, justifiably considering them biased and unfair. Azerbaijan has already made it clear that they mean nothing to it. How is the EU going to force him to change his approach?

The European Union also promises to interfere in the affairs of the judicial authorities of Azerbaijan. Namely, to seek the release of Armenian war criminals, saboteurs and terrorists. Neither the EU nor anyone else has any rights to fulfill such a promise. This is an exclusively internal matter of Azerbaijan. All those who are already in prison, who are awaiting sentencing or completion of the case, have committed specific crimes on the territory of Azerbaijan and will be held accountable according to the laws of this country. All possible exchanges have already taken place, moreover, hundreds of prisoners were unilaterally transferred to the Armenian side. The fact that there are no Azerbaijani prisoners in Armenia does not speak to Yerevan's humanity, but to the fact that Azerbaijani soldiers did not surrender en masse. And also that the war was not fought on the territory of Armenia. What questions can there be? The separatist leaders, the perpetrators of war crimes, are not even worth mentioning. The European Union will not be able to help the Armenian side in their release in any way.

In general, judging by the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the EU has a very strange vision of promoting peace in the region. The "hard disk" of Brussels seems to completely lack information about the prehistory of the Second Karabakh War. It is clear that this is more convenient for Europe. Meanwhile, there are many things that she will have to take into account, because Azerbaijan is not going to forget about the thirty years of occupation, ethnic cleansing and genocide committed by the country with which we are moving towards peace today. Let Baku's peaceful rhetoric today not give anyone the impression that we are also ready to pretend that nothing happened. Therefore, the assistance promised by the European Union to Armenia in strengthening trust between Baku and Yerevan must necessarily take into account the realities.

Azerbaijan stands for peace and good neighborliness. He does not mind if the European Union undertakes to finance the construction of roads in Armenia, if it wants to reach the green energy of Central Asia at its own expense. But we have many questions about the EU's financing of arms purchases for Yerevan. And these issues remain on the agenda.

Azerbaijan and Armenia cannot restore trust by moving from equivalent "points".  There will be fewer obstacles in the peace process when everyone finally understands this.